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Flood- and Weather-Damaged Homes and Mental Health: An Analysis Using England's Mental Health Survey
There is increasing evidence that exposure to weather-related hazards like storms and floods adversely affects mental health. However, evidence of treated and untreated mental disorders based on diagnostic criteria for the general population is limited. We analysed the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, a large probability sample survey of adults in England (n = 7525), that provides the only national data on the prevalence of mental disorders assessed to diagnostic criteria. The most recent survey (2014–2015) asked participants if they had experienced damage to their home (due to wind, rain, snow or flood) in the six months prior to interview, a period that included months of unprecedented population exposure to flooding, particularly in Southern England. One in twenty (4.5%) reported living in a storm- or flood-damaged home in the previous six months. Social advantage (home ownership, higher household income) increased the odds of exposure to storm or flood damage. Exposure predicted having a common mental disorder over and above the effects of other known predictors of poor mental health. With climate change increasing the frequency and severity of storms and flooding, improving community resilience and disaster preparedness is a priority. Evidence on the mental health of exposed populations is key to building this capacity
Acceptability of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled chatbots, video consultations and live webchats as online platforms for sexual health advice
Objectives Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services are undergoing a digital transformation. This study explored the acceptability of three digital services, (i) video consultations via Skype, (ii) live webchats with a health advisor and (iii) artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled chatbots, as potential platforms for SRH advice.
Methods A pencil-and-paper 33-item survey was distributed in three clinics in Hampshire, UK for patients attending SRH services. Logistic regressions were performed to identify the correlates of acceptability.
Results In total, 257 patients (57% women, 50% aged <25 years) completed the survey. As the first point of contact, 70% preferred face-to-face consultations, 17% telephone consultation, 10% webchats and 3% video consultations. Most would be willing to use video consultations (58%) and webchat facilities (73%) for ongoing care, but only 40% found AI chatbots acceptable. Younger age (<25 years) (OR 2.43, 95% CI 1.35 to 4.38), White ethnicity (OR 2.87, 95% CI 1.30 to 6.34), past sexually transmitted infection (STI) diagnosis (OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.07 to 3.95), self-reported STI symptoms (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.34 to 0.97), smartphone ownership (OR 16.0, 95% CI 3.64 to 70.5) and the preference for a SRH smartphone application (OR 1.95, 95% CI 1.13 to 3.35) were associated with video consultations, webchats or chatbots acceptability.
Conclusions Although video consultations and webchat services appear acceptable, there is currently little support for SRH chatbots. The findings demonstrate a preference for human interaction in SRH services. Policymakers and intervention developers need to ensure that digital transformation is not only cost-effective but also acceptable to users, easily accessible and equitable to all populations using SRH services
A Surprising Lack of LGRB Metallicity Evolution with Redshift
Recent additions to the population of Long-duration Gamma Ray Burst (LGRB)
host galaxies with measured metallicities and host masses allow us to
investigate how the distributions of both these properties change with
redshift. We form a sample out to z of 2.5 which we show does not have strong
redshift dependent populations biases in mass and metallicity measurements.
Using this sample, we find a surprising lack of evolution in the LGRB
metallicity distribution across different redshifts and in particular the
fraction of LGRB hosts with relatively high-metallicity, that is those with
12+log(O/H) > 8.4, remains essentially constant out to z = 2.5. This result is
at odds with the evolution in the mass metallicity relation of typical
galaxies, which become progressively more metal poor with increasing redshift.
By converting the measured LGRB host masses and redshifts to expected
metallicities using redshift appropriate mass-metallicity relations, we further
find that the increase in LGRB host galaxy mass distribution with redshift seen
in the Perley et al. (2016) SHOALS sample is consistent with that needed to
preserve a non-evolving LGRB metallicity distribution. However, the estimated
LGRB host metallicity distribution is at least a quarter dex higher at all
redshifts than the measured metallicity distribution. This corresponds to about
a factor of two in raw metallicity and resolves much of the difference between
the LGRB host metallicity cutoffs determined by Graham & Fruchter (2017) and
Perley et al. (2016). As LGRB hosts do not follow the general mass metallicity
relations, there is no substitute for actually measuring their metallicities.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, 10 table
Variational Formulation for the KPZ and Related Kinetic Equations
We present a variational formulation for the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ)
equation that leads to a thermodynamic-like potential for the KPZ as well as
for other related kinetic equations. For the KPZ case, with the knowledge of
such a potential we prove some global shift invariance properties previously
conjectured by other authors. We also show a few results about the form of the
stationary probability distribution function for arbitrary dimensions. The
procedure used for KPZ was extended in order to derive more general forms of
such a functional leading to other nonlinear kinetic equations, as well as
cases with density dependent surface tension.Comment: RevTex, 8pgs, double colum
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